We all know the 4th is Independence Day for what became the United States of America. Pause a moment, and let’s think about what that really meant and means for us today.
First, today. Yes, the March Continues, but today it’s not just for Blacks, but the elderly, disabled, other minorities, rural citizens, and those with jobs or situations that don’t allow them to get to a polling location. Voting rights are under threat today, by, unfortunately, one political party, the majority of Republicans. The subversive actions by many state legislatures is nothing short of treasonous and a radical pivot from our founding principles as they have been adapted over time to keep perfecting our great experiment.
This was the most American/patriotic shirt I had, so I wore it to our local 4th of July picnic. I don’t do selfies, so this is just the shirt, which I purchased at the Civil Rights Memorial Center, Montgomery, Alabama. A great and patriotic place to visit!
The past and present commingle.
Yes, there is no question that the founding fathers were white men of property, including several who were slave owners. Yet they quite understood that times were going to change. With the exception of the Declaration of Independence, the unique documents they created were expected to be understood in the context of the times: the Articles of Confederation adopted 1776, in effect March 1, 1777, the Constitution 1789, and the Bill of Rights, 1791. They were not originalists, as that term has come to be used today.
There was much that went on prior to July 4, 1776 for that day to happen. The First Continental Congress with representatives of twelve of the separate colonies on this continent met in Philadelphia in 1774 to discuss how to react to Great Britain’s Coercive Acts, meant to bring its colonies in line with paying the recently imposed taxes. U.S. history books tend to play up the tea tax, but it was more than that. That Congress was hardly revolutionary. In fact, they were looking for solutions to remain colonies, but with some improved coordination and autonomy.
When Great Britain learned of the actions of the First Continental Congress, “General Gage was ordered to suppress the rebellion in Massachusetts and seize the leaders of the Sons of Liberty, among them Samuel Adams and John Hancock. On April 19th, 1775 nearly 800 redcoats were dispatched to Concord, twenty miles west of Boston. They were ordered to seize the militia’s arsenal and capture their leaders. Citizens of Concord had found out 72 hours before that soldiers were coming to the village to destroy their weapons taking precautionary measures to hide the ammunition. The night of April 19th as the redcoats were approaching Concord, dispatch riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes, alerted residents and the militia that soldiers were coming.
Little after dawn the first confrontation occurred. As the redcoats were entering Lexington on their way to Concord and outnumbered nearly ten to one, citizens stood strong and defiant ready to defend their freedom. The British commander ordered the militiamen disarmed, a shot was fired and soon eight militiamen were dead and nine wounded. Once in Concord they succeeded in destroying part of the arsenal. But the bloodshed occurred when the redcoats were retreating to Boston. A large group of militiamen had gathered in Concord and ambushed the British with the result of seventy three dead British soldiers and two hundred wounded or missing. The Americans suffered close to one hundred casualties.”[i]
Thus, the start of what became our war for Independence.
A month later, the Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775 in what has become known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were the workaholics.
The Second Congress included the following members of the First Congress:
| New Hampshire: | John Sullivan, Nathaniel Folsom |
| Massachusetts Bay: | John Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushing, Robert Treat Paine |
| Rhode Island: | Stephen Hopkins, Samuel Ward |
| Connecticut: | Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, Silas Deane |
| New York: | Isaac Low, John Alsop, John Jay, Philip Livingston, James Duane, William Floyd, Henry Wisner, Simon Boerum |
| New Jersey: | James Kinsey, William Livingston, Stephen Crane, Richard Smith, John De Hart |
| Pennsylvania: | Joseph Galloway, John Dickinson, Charles Humphreys, Thomas Miffin, Edward Biddle, John Morton, George Ross |
| Delaware: | Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read |
| Maryland: | Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, William Paca, Samuel Chase, Robert Goldsborough |
| Virginia: | Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton |
| North Carolina: | William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, Richard Caswell |
| South Carolina: | Henry Middleton, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Christopher Gadsden, John Rutledge, Edward Rutledge |
The following members were added: Massachusetts, John Hancock; Virginia, Thomas Jefferson; Pennsylvania, James Wilson and Benjamin Franklin; Georgia, which had not sent a representative to the first Congress, sent Lyman Hall. Delegates appointed the same president, Peyton Randolph, and secretary, Charles Thomson. Shortly thereafter, Randolph had to return to Virginia, and John Hancock was elected president of the Congress on May 24th.
Interestingly, the representatives were all elected by one of three groups: the people (I’m not sure who was allowed to vote), the committees of correspondence, or the state governing body.
“They established a Continental army and elected George Washington as Commander-in-Chief, but the delegates also drafted the Olive Branch Petition and sent it to King George III in hopes of reaching a peaceful resolution. The king refused to hear the petition and declared the American colonies in revolt.”[ii]
“This Congress was divided into three factions. One group of conservatives led by John Dickinson, the author of the Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania, who fought to compel Great Britain to return to pre-1763 conditions. [Sorry, John, fat chance of that ever happening.] A second group, directed by Thomas Jefferson, believed that “British parliament had no right to exercise authority over us” and considered the king as a sole and final authority. This second group had the support of the majority of members of congress. A third more radical group supported by Samuel Adams and John Adams favored total independence from Great Britain, however it was too radical a demand to be made public[iii].” [Turns out that wasn’t so radical after all.]
First, the Declaration of Independence, the reason for today…or should it be July 2 or maybe August 2??!
“On June 7, 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee (ironically, the father of Robert E. Lee, clearly an idealist for independence, but also an inveterate anti-federalist) put forth the resolution for independence: ‘Resolved, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states…’ Voting was postponed while some of the delegates worked to convince others to support independence, but a committee of five men was assigned to draft a document of independence: John Adams (MA), Benjamin Franklin (PA), Thomas Jefferson (VA), Roger Sherman (CT), and Robert R. Livingston (NY). Jefferson did most of the work, drafting the document in his lodgings at 7th and Market Street.
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to adopt Lee’s resolution for independence. This is the day that John Adams thought should be celebrated with ‘Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.’ (John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776)
Between July 2 and July 4, Congress argued over every word in Jefferson’s draft of the declaration, making numerous changes. On July 4, Congress voted again – this time to approve the wording of the Declaration of Independence. They didn’t actually sign the document that day. After New York’s delegates received instructions from home to vote for independence (they had initially abstained), the document was sent to Timothy Matlack to be engrossed (handwritten). Fifty of the 56 men signed the engrossed Declaration of Independence inside Independence Hall on August 2, 1776.”[iv]
LINKS and NOTES:
[i] http://www.john-adams-heritage.com/lexington-and-concord/
[ii] https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/resources-declaration-secondcontinentalcongress.htm
[iii] http://www.john-adams-heritage.com/second-continental-congress/
[iv] https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/resources-declaration-secondcontinentalcongress.htm
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